SOME BIOMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS AND SEED PRODUCTIVITY OF ANNUAL DROUGHT–RESISTANT FORAGE SPECIES FOR FOOTHILL REGIONS OF CENTRAL NORTHERN BULGARIA

Abstract. During the period 2011–2013 in Research Institute of Mountain Stockbreeding and Agriculture, Troyan (Bulgaria) the comparative testingof some annual drought–resistant cereal and legume pure crops (bitter vetch, chickpea, foxtail millet, true millet) was accomplished. It was found that the determining parameters the quantity of seed yields (weight of seeds in 1 inflorescence and weight of 1000 seeds) in cereals had at smaller values than legume crops.In respect of the yield of seeds can be deemed thatthey amount to minimum values characteristic of the corresponding forage crop. The reasons for this are the typical soils (light–gray forest pseudopodzolic with acid reaction, poorly stocked with essential nutrients, especially nitrogen)for the region, drought climate in the region in recent years and the absence of fertilization in this experiment. For this reasons the foothill regions of the Central Balkan Mountains can be considered unsuitable for ecological seed production of studied annual forage crops.